When The Lip Bar owner Melissa Butler and creative director Rosco Spears debuted their vegan lipstick to the five judges on ABCβs Shark Tank in season 6, things didnβt go well. The sharks shot down the two entrepreneurs, with one even dubbing them βcolorful cockroaches.β
Despite harsh criticisms, a general lack of interest, and foggy vision for the makeup lineβs future, Butler and Spears bounced back.
After the episode aired, Butler says the harsh comments from the judges actually helped the brand. Thousands of emails flooded their inbox inquiring about their bright and bold lipstick tints. Butler says at one point, their site received 120,000 hits resulting in a server crash.
βWhen I left Shark Tank that day, I am not going to say it didnβt bother me because it definitely has impacted me, but I knew for a fact that they didnβt understand,β says Butler. βWhen you have a strong passion for your vision and your life, nothing they couldβve said wouldβve broke me.β
Itβs no surprise that Butler does well under pressure. She started out her career on Wall Street, working for Barclays during the height of the stock market crash in 2008.
βI am so proud of that because it was such a tumultuous period and all of my co-workers hated their jobs,β says Butler. βThatβs what inspired me to start The Lip Bar, because I see this and I donβt want that to be my future.β
This was an entirely new venture for Butler. βI came from a finance background,β she says. βSo, I wasnβt the little girl always trying on makeup growing up and playing with lipstick.β
Butler says another part of her inspiration to start The Lip Bar came from her own experiences of dealing with beauty norms growing up in the city of Detroit.
βI am from Detroit and Detroit is the land of light-skinned girls with long hair,β says Butler. βWhen you grow up, that is the norm. Thatβs what is considered beautiful. You would hear guys say, yeah sheβs super pretty and what does she look like? Sheβs light skinned and has long hair. Itβs like you didnβt really describe anything about her. Why has that become the norm?β
To combat these views, Butler says she started a brand dedicated to redefining what beauty is.
But The Lip Bar is not only for women of color. While the goal is to craft hues suitable for women of color, the companyβs goal is to empower all women regardless of their ethnicity with a range of lipsticks and liquid matte colors.
Now in their fifth year, Butler says they are increasing distribution, including marketing the product in Target stores. Butler is also expanding the brand beyond the lips to the eyes with the same natural appeal.
βWe pride ourselves on being organic and as natural as possible without compromising the color or product,β says Butler. βYou can have these high-performing cosmetics without having unnecessary chemicals.β
Butler says they are also gearing up for a second Lip Bar truck tour. ΜύThe idea, which was originally pitched to the sharks and shot down as a bad idea, became crowd funded and the first set of tours launched in 2015 from Howard University.
To celebrate their fifth anniversary, The Lip Bar recently hosted a party at Clubhaus in downtown Detroit in February. βI wanted to do something to celebrate five years because people say five years is that failure point for businesses,β says Butler.
With expansion on the horizon, that doesnβt seem to be the case for this Detroit business. βItβs going to be a really exciting year,β says Butler.
For more brand and product information visit .Μύ
| Μύ |
|